Bluestone Lane Rice Village Café — Restaurant in Houston

I arrived about 20 minutes before the kitchen closed, and perhaps this was the reason for my experience. I made sure to read the reviews before writing this to see if anyone had a similar issue or if I was overthinking things.

The service was incredibly slow. As I sat down and looked at the menu, the workers were all by the food running station, talking. I was able to ask one of them if I could order; she let the others know, but maybe they didn’t hear, so I had to make intense eye contact with one of them and asked if I could order.

I often dine out alone, and I like to try a variety of things and take the rest to go. I asked for to-go boxes when I ordered, and they didn’t bring them, which is no big deal really, but it adds to the list of the lack of service.

I received my first entree, which was very tasty; it was a salad bowl. My second entree was pancakes, which sat at the window for a good 3 minutes. For a nearly empty restaurant and 4-5 girls working, that’s a little long. I had to ask the kitchen if I could grab it myself. I didn’t want to be impatient, but who likes cold pancakes? I didn’t see a waitress come by the window until like 5 minutes later, so who knows when I would’ve gotten my food?

The place was nearly empty, and there were 3-5 girls on the floor. All incredibly sweet, which leads me to think their inattentiveness is due to poor training. The prices are fair, and it’s a casual environment, so I didn't expect a fine dining experience. I had two expectations: to be able to order my food and for them to bring it. Everything else would’ve been an added bonus, but they didn’t even do that without me having to remind them to take my order and bring my food when it was ready. Personally, I think they should stick to having customers order and pick up their food at the counter until the girls can be retrained.

I’ve been in the industry, so I know what it’s like. I dine out often and have never left anything under a 20% tip, and this is the only time I felt so tempted to not leave a tip. I still left 20%, but only because of my past experience working in the industry.

When you have multiple reviews complaining about the level of customer service, that’s when it’s evident it’s clearly not just entitled customers who want to find reasons complain and take out their frustrations on the waitstaff, but that there is a problem...

Crappy service, this is coming from someone in the service industry so I could be jaded, but I had to wait at their "host stand" for 10 minutes before getting seated. Even then, it took another 15 minutes before a server took my order, no greetings whatsoever, just dropped a water bottle and left me hanging. I order a coffee latte, just a regular cliche latte with cow's milk, no sweetener/additives. It took 25 minutes for them to bring that latte out. TWENTY FIVE MINUTES for one drink, no food order. For a system that workers asked me to adhere to, there's no sense of efficiency or urgency or respect to customer(s), I couldn't even get a server's attention. It was a hot mess. All the other customers didn't have much going on by the way, their orders were placed or folks were just camping out on their studies/laptops/convos. Once more people came did they finally bring out my LUKEWARM coffee. I ordered a HOT latte. For a casual diner style cafe, I would have expected better service with a better sense of hustle. I don't know if servers are trained to multi-task or streamline their efficiency with a "full hands in, full hands out" system, but there needs to be improvement if staff can't even manage a few tables. Much less a full house. I doubt they could even respect the fact that I waited per their service system, whereas others just sat themselves down and got helped before me.

On a redeeming note, my friend's food tasted good. He ordered a chicken wrap (didn't taste that) with potato wedges. I pilfered a potato wedge and it was decently seasoned, well fried to have that crispy outer layer and creamy inside.

Restrooms look nice, but smelly. Well lit space for service and journaling/studies. There's shadowy corners for those...

I chose this place because of In-kind. I love finding new places. To say I am disappointed is an understatement. I've been looking at the menu for days if not weeks I decided on the Ají Verde pulled chicken. When the plate arrived I was immediately disappointed with the, "crisps," which are nothing more than Ruffles potato chips. My bad, I should've asked what the crisps are, but seriously in an upscale place like this I didn't expect Ruffles. The sandwich matched nothing I had pictured in my imagination according to the description. So I lifted up the bun to inspect. The chicken is not a pulled chicken as described. It's actually a chopped chicken and it looks very much like the remains you'd find in the bottom of a baking dish. To my surprise the avocado listed in the description is more like a very thinly spread avocado mash. I did dig around in the sandwich looking for more evidence of avocado, and couldn't find any trace. So for avocado, you get slight hint of green on the bun. There was zero lettuce and only arugula, which I don't mind but I'm letting you know in case you find the description, "market lettuce," means actually getting some type of lettuce not a leafy green that is a member of the broccoli, cabbage or mustard green family. I found three thin pieces of red onion. The service was by all accounts fantastic the young man that met me, seated me and ultimately brought me my food and came by to check on me a little later than it should've been did ultimately take it off my check. After the third bite, I just decided to to leave which is rare for me and I messaged a friend I had invited to come for coffee to skip this place. What a complete...